Super East Sunday

Two teams. Two venues. One day to cover some yards and take home the prize. Chat box commentators pored over the numbers and made early predictions, but on a day like this it just boils down to determination and faith. Coach Reaper was backing the champions of the eastern conference, and they got a head start with QB Motorhead calling the plays. It looked like an easy win was in the works. But in the second half, the champions of the northern conference finally gathered steam to throw three sweet long passes downrange and clinch the title.



The morning started out super east at Kahana: 98 degrees. Some pilots made an early call for Makapuu, where the flow was a lot more northerly, but I was sure Kahana would turn on at some point. Eleven true believers showed up around noon and a brief reading of 73 degrees got them to start hiking. The sensor then veered to 93 degrees, though that didn't keep anyone from launching.

By the time I launched, just after 1:00, the sensor showed the wind had backed to a barely tolerable 81 degrees. The clouds were super high, somewhere between three and four grand. My water damaged vario seemed to be working as I set up to launch, but once I got airborne it was clear that no sounds were coming out of it. That would make things just a bit more challenging!

I joined Gaza and Woody above the rhino horn and charged to the back, climbing to 2,700 feet before heading directly over the back to Punaluu. Gaza took the front route and followed. At Punaluu the flow was coming out of boogaland, super easterly, but nice and light. Man did I wish I had a vario now. I made passes deeper and deeper into boogaland, trying to make sense of the lift without my customary audio feedback, and I slowly climbed to a chilly three grand before heading out to chart a course for the grassy plains of Kahuku. I heard Tim and Scrappy on the radio at Makapuu. Scrappy was saying something about huge rotor balls. Amazing that Makapuu ended up being the venue with rotor balls and not Kahana.

Gaza headed to Hauula for a view of Sacred Falls, but I flew by without stopping. Gaza ended up landing at Pounders, and I enjoyed a long scenic glide to my favorite golf course. Jim followed a bit later with a trip to BYU. It's been a long time since we had cross country conditions this nice. What a great reminder of why we like to do this!

Gaza and Jim got a ride back with a nice guy from BYU. After finding another lucky golf ball, and hitting the beer store in Kahuku, I was lucky to catch a bus right away to follow them. We returned to find people gaggling up for a second shift, as the wind was finally turning more northerly. After the flying many of us retired to my house to celebrate the day's events with a BBQ feast prepared by Dorothy.

I was happy to have a scenic cross country day to test out my new Gopro Hero 3, which replaces the Hero 2 that was ruined in my water landing last month. I am very happy with my initial results. I shot it at 120 fps though I didn't really get any footage I wanted to slow down to quarter speed - next time I need some closeup flybys!

Northern conference team roster: Woody, Gaza, Harvey, Bonnie, Firefly John, McStalker, McJohnson, Big Island Stan, One Eye, me, Maui Rodney, Laurel, Drew, Steve, JD, Duck.

Eastern conference team roster: Motorhead, Sidehill, Fireman Dave, Roland, Scrappy, Tim, Johnimo, Doug, and hopefully a few others. I'm pretty sure you gotta have 11 to make a team.